JP2002123381A - Printing system and its processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system and its processing method by which a printing job can normally be processed even when plural printing systems exist by setting identification information printing data as peculiar identification information. SOLUTION: A printer driver 305 generates printing data, which can be processed by a printer 309, based on a printing request from an application 303, and a printer monitoring system 306 sets identification information in the generated printing data to monitor the printing job based on the identification information. When the identification information is already set in the generated printing data, the client part 307 of a print server system for monitoring the printing job based on the identification information set by the server part 308 of the print server system sets identification information obtained by pairing the identification information and different identification information and informs the part 308 of it.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system including an information processing device connected to a network and a plurality of printers, and a processing method therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a current printing system, an ID issued by a specific module in the printing system is set in print job data, and processing such as tracking of print jobs is performed. It does not consider coexistence with other systems.

[0003]

That is, in the current printing system, when there are a plurality of independent printing systems or printer monitoring systems using the same type of ID in the print job data, one system is used. Another system overwrites the set ID with another ID. At this time, there is a problem that the previously set ID is overwritten and deleted.

[0004] For this reason, it has been impossible to normally perform processing such as tracking of a print job using the same type of ID in all of a plurality of independent modules.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem. By setting identification information in print data as unique identification information, a print job can be executed even when a plurality of printing systems exist. An object of the present invention is to provide a printing system that can perform normal processing and a processing method thereof.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a printing system comprising an information processing apparatus connected to a network and a plurality of printers, based on a printing request from an application. A printer driver that generates print data that can be processed by the printer, and a plurality of monitoring systems that set identification information in the generated print data and monitor print jobs based on the identification information. Is characterized in that, when identification information has already been set in the print data, identification information that is a set of identification information different from the identification information is set.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of processing a printing system including an information processing apparatus connected to a network and a plurality of printers. Generating print data that can be processed by the printer, analyzing the generated print data, and determining whether or not identification information is set; and determining the generated print data according to the determination result. Setting identification information in the data, wherein the setting step includes, when the identification information has already been set in the print data, identifying the identification information different from the identification information into a set. The information is set.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

In the present embodiment, considering that there are a plurality of independent printing systems or printer monitoring systems using the same type of ID in the print job data,
If the ID has already been set by a certain system, this ID is obtained and retained in this system without changing the set ID, and the obtained ID is used for processing such as tracking print jobs. Is what you do. By doing so, it becomes possible to normally perform processing such as tracking of a print job using the same type of ID in all of a plurality of independent systems.

Further, by embedding an identifier unique to the system in an ID issued by the system, the IDs of the independently operating printing systems are prevented from colliding. In this way, when tracing the print job, it is possible to determine whether the print end job notified from the printer is a print job managed by which system, and the printing due to the ID collision is performed. Job tracking failures can be prevented.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printing system according to the embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a network, which is a local area network (LAN) line such as Ethernet (registered trademark). Reference numeral 102 denotes a host computer (information processing apparatus) to which a printer described later is communicably connected via a network 101 by a predetermined protocol. A print server 103 manages the printing order for each printer based on print requests from a plurality of host computers (clients) connected to the network 101. 104,10
Reference numeral 5 denotes a printer, which forms an image on recording paper in accordance with print job data from a plurality of host computers (clients).

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the host computer in the embodiment. In FIG. 2, 200 is C
The PU is a PU that executes a predetermined program stored in a ROM described later or an application program stored in a hard disk based on an operating system (OS), and controls access to various devices connected to a bus described later. 201 is a ROM, a CPU
This is a memory that stores control programs, control data, and the like that are executed by the control program 200. Reference numeral 202 denotes a RAM;
00 is used as a work memory when executing a program stored in the ROM 201, a hard disk, or the like. Reference numeral 203 denotes a keyboard, which provides an interface with a user together with a pointing device such as a mouse (not shown). Reference numeral 204 denotes a hard disk, which is a large-capacity storage device that stores application programs and the like. A display 205 such as a CRT or an LCD functions as a user interface together with the keyboard 203. Reference numeral 206 denotes a network board, and the printers 104 and 1 shown in FIG.
05, a function of communicating with the print server 103 or another client machine. Reference numeral 207 denotes a system bus.
06 are connected to each other so that data can be exchanged with each other.

Here, the configuration and operation of a print server system including a client machine and a server machine will be described. The client machine corresponds to, for example, the host computer 102 shown in FIG.
The server machine corresponds to the print server 103.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a client-server configuration of the printing system according to the embodiment. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 301 denotes a print server machine, and 302 denotes a client machine. 303 is an application, 304
Is a spooler on the OS. Here, when the user instructs printing via the user interface of the application 303, the spooler 30 is sent from the application 303.
4, a print request is issued. A printer driver 305 receives print data from the spooler 304, converts the print data into a data format that can be processed by the printer, and returns the data to the spooler 304. A printer monitoring system 306 operates in cooperation with the printer driver 305. Further, the printer driver 305 transmits the print data to the spooler 3.
When the print job ID is received from the printer monitoring system 306, the print job ID is acquired from the printer monitoring system 306 and embedded in the print data.
This ID is notified from the printer as the ID of the print job when the print data is printed on the printer and the printing is completed. The printer monitoring system 306 uses this ID to track the print job.

Reference numeral 307 denotes a client unit of the print server system in the embodiment, and 308 denotes a server unit of the print server system. Here, the client unit 307 and server unit 308 of the print server system operate independently of the printer monitoring system 306. The client unit 307 receives print data that can be processed by the printer from the spooler 304. Further, the client unit 307 obtains an ID for tracking the print job from the server unit 308 of the print server system, and tries to embed the ID in the print data. However, this print data is an output result of the printer driver 305, and the ID issued by the printer monitoring system 306 is embedded therein. If the ID acquired from the server unit 308 is overwritten on the print data, the print server system can operate normally, but the printer monitoring system 306 cannot track the print job.

For this reason, the client unit 307 analyzes the print data and, if the same type of ID has already been set, obtains the ID set in the print data instead of overwriting the obtained ID. The server unit 308 notifies the server unit 308 of the combination with the ID issued by the server unit 308. After that, the printer at the printing destination (FIG.
In the example shown in (1), the print data is transferred to 309). Here, the printer 309 is set to notify the ID set in the print data when printing is completed, and notifies the printer monitoring system 306 and the print server system server unit 308 of the ID of the print job whose printing has been completed. I do. On the other hand, the server unit 308 holds the ID notified from the client unit 307, and notifies the client unit 307 of the print end when it finds a job that matches the print ended job ID notified from the printer 309. I do.

Next, the above-described printer monitoring system 30
A print processing sequence of the client unit 307 in a print system in which the print server 6 and the print server system exist independently will be described.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the print processing sequence of the client unit when using the printing system. First, in step S401, the client unit 307 receives print data from the spooler 304. More specifically, first, the user
And the application 303 issues a print request to the spooler 304 on the OS. Then, the spooler 304 passes the print data to the printer driver 305, and the printer driver 305 converts the print data into a format that can be processed by the printer 309 and returns the print data to the spooler 304. At this time, when the printer driver 305 operates in cooperation with the printer monitoring system 306 as shown in FIG.
D is acquired, and processing for embedding the ID in the print data is performed. After that, the spooler 304 transfers the print data to the client unit 307 of the print server system.

Next, in step S402, a print job is registered in the server section 308 of the print server system. By this registration processing, the server unit 308 schedules a print job and starts management as a target of processing such as tracking of the print job. Then, step S403
, An ID used for tracking a print job is acquired from the server unit 308. In the current printing system,
The client unit 307 always embeds the ID in the print data, and the server unit 308 tracks the print job using the issued ID. For this reason, it is impossible to track the print job in all systems except the system in which the ID was last overwritten.

Next, in step S404, the client unit 307 analyzes the print data. Then, in step S405, it is determined from the analysis result in step S404 whether the ID has already been embedded in the print data. Here, if the ID is already embedded in the print data, the process proceeds to step S406, and the already embedded ID is acquired from the print data. And step S
In step 407, the embedded ID is notified to the server unit 308 as a set together with the ID issued by the server unit 308.

On the other hand, in the above step S405,
If the ID is not embedded in the print data, the process proceeds to step S408, and the system identifier determined by the entire system is added to the ID issued by the server unit 308. With this processing, an ID that is always different from the ID issued by another printing system can be created. As an example, the ID generation method for a plurality of systems starts with “00000001” and
In the case of a character string representation of an eight-digit number that increases in increments, the same ID is issued between a plurality of systems, which may hinder print job tracking processing and the like.

Therefore, in the printing system according to the present embodiment, a system name is added to this ID and is set to “00000001” so that I / O can be performed between systems having different system names.
It is possible to prevent D from colliding.

Next, in step S409, the ID issued by the server unit 308 is embedded in the print data. In step S410, the server unit 308 is notified that the ID issued by the server unit 308 is embedded in the print data. Steps S406 to S4 described above
By the processing of step 10, the server unit 308 stores the ID already embedded or embedded in the print data without overwriting the ID already embedded in the print data.
, And the tracking process of the print job can be performed in both the server unit 308 and the printer monitoring system 306 of the printing system.

When the notification to the server unit 308 is completed, the process proceeds to step S 502 shown in FIG. 5, where the print data is transferred to the printer 309 via the LAN line 310.
Then, in step S503, the server unit 308 is notified that the transfer of the print data to the printer has been completed, and the process ends.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
Although the case where one printing system exists on the network (LAN line 310) has been described as an example, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a case where a plurality of printing systems exist. In this case, each printing system may add a unique system name such as “00000001” described above.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the following effects can be obtained. (1) In the present printing system, even when there are a plurality of independent printing systems or printer monitoring systems using the same type of ID in the print job data,
By preventing overwriting, the processing such as tracking of a print job using this ID can be normally performed by all of the plurality of independent systems. (2) By embedding the system-specific identifier in the ID, it is possible to prevent the IDs of the independently operating printing systems from colliding.

The present invention can be applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), but can be applied to a single device (for example, a copier, a facsimile). Device).

Further, an object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus, and to provide a computer (CPU or MP) of the system or apparatus.
It goes without saying that U) can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk,
Hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-
A ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, and the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also an OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By setting the identification information in the print data as unique identification information, a print job can be processed normally even when a plurality of printing systems exist.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a host computer in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a client-server configuration of the printing system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating print processing of a client unit illustrated in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a printing process of the client unit illustrated in FIG. 3;

Claims (9)

[Claims] In a printing system including an information processing apparatus connected to a network and a plurality of printers, a printer driver that generates print data that can be processed by the printer based on a print request from an application; A plurality of monitoring systems that set identification information in the set print data, and monitor the print job based on the identification information, wherein each of the monitoring systems has a configuration in which the identification information is already set in the print data. A printing system for setting identification information which is a set of identification information different from the identification information. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the different identification information is identification information to which a system-specific identifier is added. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein the system-specific identifier is a system name of a monitoring system. 4. A processing method for a printing system including an information processing device connected to a network and a plurality of printers, the method generating print data that can be processed by the printer based on a print request from an application. Analyzing the generated print data to determine whether or not identification information is set; and setting the identification information in the generated print data according to the determination result. In the printing system, when the identification information is already set in the print data, the setting step sets the identification information as a set of identification information different from the identification information. Processing method. 5. The processing method according to claim 4, wherein the different identification information is identification information to which an identifier unique to a system is added. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the system-specific identifier is a system name of a monitoring system. 7. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for a processing method of a printing system including an information processing apparatus connected to a network and a plurality of printers, wherein the program is a program that is executed by an application. A module that generates print data that can be processed by the printer based on the print request, a module that analyzes the generated print data, and determines whether or not identification information is set. A module for setting identification information in the generated print data, wherein the module for setting sets identification information different from the identification information when identification information is already set in the print data. A storage medium wherein a set of identification information is set. 8. The storage medium according to claim 7, wherein the different identification information is identification information to which a system-specific identifier is added. 9. The storage medium according to claim 8, wherein the system-specific identifier is a system name of a monitoring system.